Are You in a Church Bubble? – Beloved Women – November 7, 2023
READ: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6 ESV)
TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: As a Christian, it is easy for us to stay within our own respective church bubbles. We have our different communities that we fellowship with according to the day of the week: - Mondays are for our prayer groups, Tuesdays for our discipleship group, Wednesdays - for our parenting group, Thursdays - the young adult group and so on. It’s safe to say that we are in community with fellow believers who don’t have it all figured out, but they’re connected to the ONE who does, Jesus Christ.
This verse is often preached as a reminder of what Christ has done for us and what a wonderful act of love that was. I’d like to offer an alternative. Let’s meditate on this verse and look at it through the lens of the “ungodly.” Those who “oppose religion” as the Bible Hub Concordance defines it which we can humbly say isn’t us, per se, even in our humanity. While we may not always get it right, we genuinely seek to glorify Christ. There is another translation that uses sinners but for this example, I am using “the ungodly.” This encouragement is for our brothers and sisters, for the sake of argument - the ungodly ones. The ones we sometimes neglect, the ones we may banish to hell as if we’re the judge, the ones we exclude from the table, the ones who don’t believe as we believe - they are the ones Christ died for. We are the ones Christ died for. I pray that we would be more intentional within our communities and who we fellowship with and how we view the “other.” That through our life, they may see Christ in a manner in which they have never heard of Him. We may be on the narrow path, but it isn't too narrow to allow them in and to walk alongside them. Let’s be for them what that special someone was for you - a friendly neighbor.
PRAY: Lord, I thank you for dying for me and my brothers and sisters when we were at our lowest and mired in sin; thank you for being our Savior. I ask that the spirit of unity would allow me to see my brother and sister and welcome them in. I pray that You would give me opportunities to love on my neighbor that I may have overlooked. I pray that love, which covers a multitude of sins, would be my guiding light. Remind me that people need love, connection, and comfort more so than they need me talking down to them about the love of God. May my actions, display Your everlasting love. In Jesus’ name, amen.
REFLECT: Think of the people in your community, consider the pariahs. Consider those who have been pushed by church traditions. How will you show up for them today? This week? How will you show that Christ died for them?
CONNECT: Find more encouragement from Jenn Fernandez on Instagram @rubia115 and her website https://jfer.org/,where you can find a link to her spoken word EP: Step + Repeat.
© 2020 by Jenn Fernandez. All rights reserved.
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